As for the president, he has steadfastly ignored the impending crisis. He probably figures that in the run-up to the election, voters do not need to be advised that his party's ethanol policies have been responsible for food inflation. When he is not ignoring the problem, he is lying about it, with his administration refusing to deny that climate change is responsible for the present localized weather conditions. Yes, George Bush's failure to sign the Kyoto Climate Accord is responsible for the present drought. Bush caused this year's drought (and those of 1988, 1956, and 1936 as well). He also caused the global warming of the Medieval Climate Optimum (950-1250 AD) and the frigid temperatures of the Little Ice Age (1350-1850).

The crucial point is that Obama's environmental policies have put the country's food supply at risk. Anyone with common sense knows that burning 40% of the nation's corn crop (and proposing to burn the entire crop, as increasing mandates would do) to satisfy ethanol mandates is madness. Yet Obama has consistently supported the ethanol program along with impractical mandates for biofuel and other alternatives.

Even the fire ants is knockin' onna door, wantin' a drink o' water...US Drought Linked to Climate ChangeJuly 27, 2012 - As one of the worst droughts ever continues to grip major portions of the United States, a new study links this summers record-setting dry spell, and other extreme weather events, to the worlds warming climate.

Parched earth

In Texas, the earth is parched. Rivers have dried up, and pasture land has turned brown from the heat. Its been this way since January 2011. The southwestern state is the fourth largest producer of rice in the United States but the drought could cut production by half. "Our total agri-income, farm gate value of our commodities here, were usually right around $290 million, and a large percentage of that comes from rice production," Texas agricultural extension agent Peter McGuill says. "Youre talking about a big chunk of money thats not going to be circulating within the economy.

James Bradbury, a climate scientist with the World Resources Institute, a global environmental think tank, explains that La Nina, a natural weather pattern that periodically cools the Pacific Ocean, helped trigger the drought by bringing warmer, dryer weather to the American South, which has been hardest hit by the drought. Time will tell the extent to which rising temperatures and global climate change contributed to this specific event and the severity of it," Bradbury says. "I think there is a good likelihood that the temperatures that were seeing and the heat wave that were seeing is all consistent with a warmer world, that that's exacerbating these drought conditions."

Human influence

Peter Stott, who leads the climate monitoring team for the Met Office Hadley Centre, a climate research institution in southwest Britain, says La Nina is only part of the story. He co-authored the American Meteorological Society study which links climate change with the Texas drought and other extreme weather events. We did find clear evidence for human influence on the Texas heat wave and also in the very unusual temperatures we had in the United Kingdom in 2011, he says. The study finds the 2011 Texas drought was 20 times more likely to occur than in the 1960s as a result of human-induced climate changing emissions in the atmosphere. The heat wave last November in England was 62 times more likely to have occurred than 50 years ago, according to the report.

While not all extreme weather events can be linked to climate change, Stott and his colleagues found evidence that they are more probable in a warmer world. What we must remember is that it is the combination of natural variations of climate that is important here," Stott says. "We saw that in La Nina in Texas, but, over and above that, there is this additional climate effect that can and has indeed in the last year led to a greater vulnerability to extreme weather.

Corn & soybean crops hit hard by this year's drought...US Drought Impacts Global Food SecurityAugust 08, 2012: The United States is the leading producer of corn and soybeans  two commodities that developing countries rely on. However, over the past two months, prices have risen sharply as the U.S. experiences its worst drought since the 1950s. A food policy expert says effectively responding to the drought can help prevent another global food crisis

More than half the United States is experiencing the dual problems of too little rain and temperatures that are too high. Shenggen Fan, head of the International Food Policy Research Institute, said thats not only driving up prices, but contributing to price volatility as well. The U.S. plays a huge role in global food security. The U.S. is the largest food exporter  soybeans, maize and many other food commodities. So anything [that] happens in the U.S. will have global significance, he said. The decline in maize production has boosted prices by 30 percent in the past two months. Soybean prices are up 19 percent. Fan said, Last weekends rain may have helped a little bit, but we think the drought may come back and will continue to affect both soybean and maize production.

The price rises for corn and soybeans have a major negative effect on another important commodity  wheat. Wheat prices have followed maize price very closely, and that will have more impact [on] some poorer countries in the Middle East. Many countries do import wheat not only from [the] U.S., but also from other countries, he said. Fan said that droughts in the United States and other countries are not the result of occasional variations in seasonal weather patterns, but rather climate change.

It is clear that extreme weather events have come to hit us more often. So we have seen frequency as well as intensity increase over the last several decades. And its not only here in the U.S., but also in other parts of the world. More drought and heat in Russia, more floods in China. India is experiencing a very weak monsoon that will also affect their rice production. So definitely climate change is affecting global food production, he said. China is the worlds largest importer of soybeans, and much comes from the U.S. China uses soybeans for animal feed. So a rise in soybean prices could lead to higher meat prices. Latin American countries are in a similar situation.

The IFPRI director general has made a number of recommendations--one of which would directly affect U.S. energy policy. Here in the U.S., biofuel uses probably 30 percent of U.S. corn. And considering [the] very high maize price right now, it would be very wise to stop using maize or corn for biofuel production. The U.S. right now has a mandate for ethanol content in fuel. I think it should be very, very wise for [the] U.S. to stop doing that. And Europe should also stop doing that as well, he said.

Fan also recommends the U.S., IFPRI, various U.N. agencies and the World Bank closely monitor the situation. That would allow them to take quick action in any emergency. He said large food producing nations should be ready to deploy some of their grain reserves, if need be, and warns countries not to impose bans on exporting food. If we dont take action, Im afraid another food crisis will come and very soon. So thats why we need to act together. Its not here yet, but if we dont act together Im afraid the crisis will come, he said. The International Food Policy Research Institute continues to recommend increasing agricultural investment in developing countries to ease the volatility of food prices.

Are you dumb or stupid? it's ethanol.....it raises the food prices, therefore your environmental policies, created a "regressive" tax on the poor and middle class because food prices have shot up......or do they not mention that on Huffington Post? Diversify your sources, it's a big world out there

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